Tourist centre move proposed

Plans to move Newark’s tourist information centre out of the Gilstrap Centre have been proposed by councillors.

A working party at Newark and Sherwood District Council recommended that the centre be moved to the new National Civil War museum in the Old Magnus Buildings or the Palace Theatre, Newark.

A review of the Gilstrap Centre is under way, but the group says the outcome should not restrict plans for the tourist information centre.

It says a decision on the location of the centre should be finalised by 2014.

The working party recommends that Ollerton’s tourist information centre, off Ollerton Roundabout, is sold and a shared service set up in Rufford Abbey and Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre instead.

The chairman of the working party, Mr David Lloyd, said they had looked at tourist information centres in great detail. He said numbers visiting the centres were falling and changes were needed.

Footfall was found to be greater when a centre was inside a visitor attraction.

Mr Lloyd said in Newark either the theatre box office or the Old Magnus Buildings would be a better location than the Gilstrap Centre.

He said the group did not feel Ollerton’s information centre was in a good location. But he wanted a use to be found for the building before it closed so it was not left empty.

He said there was potential to work with the county council for a service at Rufford Abbey and Sherwood Forest, which attracted different types of tourists who could be enticed to other parts of the district.

The district council would either employ its own staff there or pay for others to provide the service.

Mr Lloyd said the model that worked in Southwell, where volunteers organised by the town council help provide the service, should be copied.

The proposals were among 12 recommendations presented to the district council’s policy scrutiny committee on Monday before they are discussed by the cabinet.

Others included creating tourist information points in parishes using touch-screen technology, and the council joining forces with Experience Nottinghamshire to provide online marketing.

Members of the committee were in favour of the proposals in principle, but some were concerned about the details.

Mr John Peck said: “I feel there is more work to be done on exploring the validity of having tourist information centres because the one at Ollerton does an excellent job.”

A member of the Save the Gilstrap campaign, Mrs Alex Peace-Gadsby, who was at Monday’s meeting, said afterwards there were serious flaws in the data collected about the centres.

She said it was impossible to draw any accurate conclusions on data from one week’s worth of study.

Mrs Peace-Gadsby said the study failed to consider the added value created by people visiting the tourist information centre who would go on to spend money in other places in the district.

She said it was also important not to overlook the fact that the Gilstrap Centre was inextricably linked to the fate of the tourist information centres.

“It is the most logical place in Newark for it, being based in the iconic castle grounds where it can be easily found,” she said.